To Find A Place
by moonlightbear
Summary: It's the place where love takes over hate, where confusion becomes clear vision, where once you were lost, now you are found. This is the story of Lilias Connor, a girl who seen too much, but knows so little.
1. And So It Begins

**To Find A Place**

**By:** Moonlightbear

**Summary: **It's the place where love takes over hate, where confusion becomes clear vision, where once you were lost, now you are found. This is the story of Lilias Connor, a girl who seen too much, but knows so little. Formally, Its a Hard Demigod Life…

**Author's notes: **Okay all! Be prepared… my method and outline for every chapter of 90 percent of all my stories is as follows: story title, author, summary, author's notes(optional), disclaimer, chapter title, story, end chapter, and review request. The reason it is this way is because it is organized, leaves you (the reader) with no confusion, I can't be blamed for any misconceptions of who owns what, and lastly, you can skip the repeated stuff without wondering where the real story begins.

**Also…** this story originally had no real ending in sight and I was afraid I would eventually drop this as I have done with so many in the past. Now I have an ending in mind, but the story in general (for me and those of you who have reviewed) needed an update… much is the same but some has changed.

**Disclaimer:** these books are so good I wish I could say I wrote them, but I didn't… please give it up for the brilliant Rick Rioridan!! Although all characters you know are his, but the ones who are new are mine and I'm proud of it!!

**Chapter One: **And So It Begins

Have you ever gotten in a situation and you don't even know how you got there? All I did was answer my phone and talk to my mom for 5 minutes; now several hours later, I'm in a hidden hut in the middle of the woods. It's magically protected and enhanced, or at least that what my friend said. I hadn't seen her in years and today we just ran into each other. It's so odd and I feel so lost right now! It's not just me and her either; my little brother is with me too. They're both sleeping right now. I wish I could, but I can't; not after everything that happened and these dreams aren't helping either. They're not normal everyday dreams either; they're vivid, real feeling dreams. It's crazy…

After everything that's happened, this is the closest I've gotten to the truth. My mom never said it out right, but I knew I was different. There was a secret she kept from me…

You might wonder how I know this; well, I have to start at the beginning to explain. Way, WAY at the beginning, like, before I was even born…

_---12yrs earlier---_

Chloe Shada Connor was a normal girl with smarts and definitely some determination. She was only twenty-three years old when she took a break for the summer to visit her grandparents in Greece before she graduated with her Master's Degree in Art (and a minor in education) in Dec. That was the summer she met my dad. She'd tell me, it was "A romance that made beautiful waves." They spent nearly everyday together.

He even met her grandparents and they loved him to death. They still do, too! They know something about my dad that I don't. You see, in the years to come they will send my mom money to send me and my little brother, Eli, away to school. I just wish they'd tell me why. Anyway back to the story…

My mom and dad loved spending time together and mom told me, he was thrilled when she told him I was coming, but he couldn't stay. "He wanted to!" She'd tell me, but it just wasn't possible. "He's very important and has lots of duties." Anyway, the funny thing was, she never told me who he was. He's always been this mysterious guy who has caused me, my life, and my mom's life to become different from everyone else.

She went back to the states and finished her degrees; just like she planned, the only difference was she had a baby bump and cravings. She got a job at one of the best art museums in San Francisco, but it was short lived. When I was born, things always happened around me. Mom never said what exactly, but I know we moved 4 times from the time I was born till I was about two and a half years old. I'm sure she said this back then, just like she always says it when I have to change schools or leave unexpectedly. "There is always a place for us… A place where you belong and we'll find it!" Then she'd put this one song on and sing it to me.

Prescott, AZ seemed like the right place. It is a beautiful town with the old fashion town square and mall; not many towns still have those things. The woods, the snow, and the people, it's hard to beat. We moved here when I was about two and a half. We met my stepdad there, and he and my mom really liked each other. They just clicked and he treated me like his own daughter. He did construction and on the side he was a metal artist, which mom really liked. He always came home sweaty and his art studio was in a shed in the back yard. It smelled a lot! Mom liked to paint in the study.

They really hit it off in other ways too. So far you know I have a little brother name Eli, but what you don't know is I have 8 half siblings too. When I was three, mom had the twins, Megan and Matthew. Alexandar, my stepdad, was so happy; we went on a road trip to the Grand Canyon and Yellow Stone. A year later, mom had little Andrew. He's the smart one, a year after he enter school he skipped a grade and last I heard, he might skip another one soon.

A few weeks after Andrew was born mom got a call from a hospital in North Carolina. My grandpa was really sick, mom wanted to go but Alexandar couldn't leave, he just started a really big project for work. Mom couldn't take all the kids, it's just too hard to do that and help her father. Alex said we could all stay with him; he had his parents, his uncle, and two cousins that lived in town. Mom was happy, but me and her had never been apart before and mom wasn't gonna start now.

I was gonna change schools anyway 'cause of these candy guys outside of my school… About a week before Andrew was born, my friend, Nikki and I, were walking the block between the school and the daycare, where Meg and Matt were. I'd done it tons of times! This day was different though; these guys were in a van and a nice lady popped her head out, smiling and said, "Do you sweet things want some candy?" Now my mommy told me all about bad strangers and so I told her no. She frowned and I swear I saw her hair go all firey… I tried to pull Nikki with me as I tried to leave, but she pulled back and went closer to the van. "No!" I told her. We weren't super close to the vehicle, but we were close enough. They opened the door and grabbed at us. Nikki realized they were bad people and screamed bloody murder, which I have to say startled everyone. Teachers came running and the van abandon whatever they were going to do. It was really scary. Mom flipped a lid, when she found out. I'd been at home ever since, so if I stayed here when she'd leave to my grandpa's, Alex would send me back to the same school. That made mom nervous, so she took me with her to her father's.

We took a train all the way cross country. It was a long trip, but mom always made it fun. We couldn't talk with grandpa when we got there; he was on life-support and in a coma after he had a stroke. Mom and I sat in the room with him though and mom talked to him. She cried a lot. I tried to wake him, but he wouldn't; I made mom laugh though. She was glad I was there. He died three days later. We stayed, so mom can make all the funeral arrangements.

During the two weeks we stayed in North Carolina, we stay at my grandpa's house. It was my mom's now after all; she was an only child of both parents who were only children and her mom died when she was a little girl. She was the only one left… Actually, I take that back. Her grandparents are still alive in Greece. They love it there and only left once when their daughter died, many years ago.

Sometimes, I have an over-active imagination; at first, I thought there were ghosts in my grandpa's house because on the third night I heard talking. It would go on for hours, and I thought the ghost came into my room sometimes because I felt something touch my face. It felt like whiskers and grandpa didn't have any cats. Mom would tell me it was the wind because on cool nights she would open the windows in my room and I'd get to smell the ocean breeze all night. Grandpa's house was right on the beach, it was so nice, but it was small. Later I found out the talking really was and this lead to all sorts of problems… and I hated him for it.

_--End chapter—_

How do you like the revamp? Please let me know… yes quite a bit is the same, but I fix a few problems some people have told me. If other things need to be addressed (outline not included), please let me … REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!!


	2. Trouble, Hate, Reunion, and Life

**To Find A Place**

**By:** Moonlightbear

**Summary: **It's the place where love takes over hate, where confusion becomes clear vision, where once you were lost, now you are found. This is the story of Lilias Connor, a girl who seen too much, but knows so little. Formally, It's a Hard Demigod Life…

**Disclaimer:** these books are so good I wish I could say I wrote them, but I didn't… please give it up for the brilliant Rick Rioridan!! Although all characters you know are his, but the ones who are new are mine and I'm proud of it!!

**Chapter Two:** Trouble, Hate, Reunion, and Life

Alex and my other siblings flew in for the funeral, and then we all took the train home. Nothing really happened until three weeks later. My mom and stepdad argued really loudly one night. Andrew started crying and woke everyone else up. Meg and Mattie started calling for mommy and daddy, and I just couldn't take it. I went into my mom's room to tell her and Alex to stop yelling and fix the babies. I barely spoke a word when my stepdad saw me and yelled at me. My mom smacked him across the face and then came towards me, telling me he didn't mean it. She closed the door behind her, guided me back to my room, and then went to calm the babies. Alexandar didn't leave his room that night and in the morning I found my mom sleeping in the guest room downstairs.

A week later mom and I were living in an apartment in Phoenix, AZ, an hour away from Prescott. My mom explain to me that she and Alex were taking time apart and since he own the house, had lots of family and friends, the babies would stay with him. We went to see them twice or three times a week, so it was cool. My stepdad wouldn't look at me though and that made me sad.

I didn't understand exactly why my mom and Alex were fighting and why he hated me suddenly, until my mom picked me up late from school one day. She told me she had been at the doctor's. She was pregnant again. No biggie, I was used to that, but the reason this time is different is because of when she got pregnant.

She told me about my real dad visiting her in North Carolina. How they spent time together and she fell in love with him again and now I was getting a new sibling. When I asked if he was going to come here and be my daddy she said "No, he still has a big job that he can't leave." This made me _so_ mad! How dare he do that to _my _momma?! She may not be mad at him, but I sure was! I threw a proper little temper tantrum. Twice he's gotten her pregnant and twice he's left her to deal with it!

My mom must have started to draw me a bath when we first got home but I don't remember her leaving my side. She had to have though because the tub overflowed and flooded the bathroom and we only noticed it when it started coming into the living room. I kind of calmed down pretty fast because mommy started to worry and cleaned up. When she was finished, we had a long talk. She tried to get me to understand why my dad and stepdad were doing the things they were doing. I kind of get my stepdad, but _my _dad there was no understanding. _He_ was the reason my stepdad looked at me differently. Then she would play that song she always played, and tell me about a place where I would belong someday.

A year later, when my mom and stepdad finally worked things out, we moved back into the house. It took a month to resolve a lot of the problems at the apartment, though. There was water damage to the floors and even the ceiling of the apartment below us, and also the bath tub had salt residue so we had to pay for that. Mom didn't question it much; she just paid it when she could.

When we moved back in with Alexandar, he didn't treat me like he did before. He used to act like I was his daughter, but now I'm just there. He pays more attention to _his_ kids and only what he _had _to towards me and our new addition, Elijah.

Over the next couple of years, my stepdad and my mom's relationship got stronger; even with Eli, who was one of the most energetic babies I'd ever seen! More energetic the any of the babies thus far, and that's saying something when you consider the twins. Mom said he is worst than I was, so apparently I was worst then the twins, but don't believe it. You don't know what crazy is until you meet the ever mischievous M&Ms… Well, now there's Eli, but still!

The other hard thing is school. I was at yet another new school. The last one had a problem keeping their classroom pets contained and controlled, and the one before that were mean when they decided I wasn't trying. This school decided I had dyslexia and they put me in some special classes which were ok, I guess.

Mom was pregnant again and my stepdad decided the following summer after the baby was born we'd go on the biggest road trip yet! Everyone was excited and couldn't wait for the baby to come and for summer to arrive. When baby Dale came, he was surprisingly quiet and calm, which was a relief from the ever chaotic ball of energy, Eli.

Finally summer was here and off we went! We rented a van and drove from Prescott to Louisville, IN where Alexandar's sister lives. On the way we stopped just outside of Amarillo, TX at the Cadillac Graveyard where Mom, my stepdad, and I got to spray paint on these old Cadillacs in the desert. Some of the little ones painted too, but mom and Alex had to help. One night we stayed in Oklahoma City and the next morning we saw a super pretty house called Overholser Mansion. I love the place.

The next night we were in St. Louis, MO and the following day we went to the top of the Gateway Arch in the morning and then went out to lunch. We were leaving the restaurant when we noticed a big crowd gathering. An explosion at the top of the Arch happened only moments before we came out. My mommy didn't listen to me, but I swear I saw a boy get out of the lake and he was totally dry! How can someone do that?!

A few hours later we finally got back on the road and made it to my step-aunt Georgie's ranch in Louisville, IN. We turned in the rental van the next day and stalked up on supplies. We stayed at Georgie's place for a few days before making the longest horseback riding trip ever! We rode for five days, all the way to the outskirts of Washington DC. It was awesome! We stayed on camp grounds and had bond fires every night and smores! This summer had to have been the best ever!

Once we got to Georgie's brother-in-law's place, he's the one who lived on the outskirts of DC, we visited all the museums. DC is so cool! I'd love to live there. In truth, Alexandar had no real plans after DC so mom suggested we go to North Carolina. At first, they yelled at each other, but then Alex said it was fine. We took the train down. My stepdad really liked it there once we got there. We spent everyday on the beach and at the seaside shops.

While we were in North Carolina, there was a massive earthquake in LA that had after shocks the made it to AZ. My parents were happy we didn't have to deal with that.

We went down to Miami and Key West, before heading back home. We spent a few days in New Orleans, which was fun. When we got home we notice a few things that were knocked over, but nothing big. Everyone said the shake came at like 3 in the morning and only woke a few people. It wasn't huge or nothing here, but you could just imagine the damage it cause in LA. I cringe at the thought.

Being at home, we got into a routine pretty fast. Alexandar was working really hard all the time. Mom and he got into an argument one day because the house seemed more crowded then it really was and that was because the baby was sleeping in their room. I had my room, Eli had his own room, the twins shared with Andrew, and then we had mom's art study. Mom also said it's possible we would be even more crowded soon. She said she'd give up her art room for the new baby that will be coming in 8 months or so. She also said the most she was willing to do is have me move into Eli's room and let Andrew and Dale share mine, but I wanted my own room!

That's when she dropped a huge bombshell on me. Three weeks before school started she decided to tell me I was going to boarding school! I'd gone to every school in town and she knew eventually I'd be going away to school any way. It was my father's wish; supposedly, he had a few wishes that my mom had to fulfill. The first was that I knew _he _was my dad, even if I didn't know who he was, just that I didn't think Alex or anyone else was my real dad. The second was a good and safe education and this led to boarding school. The school I was gonna go to had so much more than any of the local schools I've gone to, so I guess it works. Maybe this was the place I belonged…

The three weeks before I started at the new boarding school was not fun. Eli was in the terrible twos; he'd wake up early and start throwing things at me. I wanted to strangle him! Several nights I went into mom's study and slept on the sofa. Mom told me after the third morning she found me there, that she would figure something out before I came home for the winter holidays. That made me feel better. I know I sound spoiled because I want my own room, but my mom promised me I always would. And seriously, who wants to share with their two year old brother; I mean come on! I'm seven! I'd rather share with Mattie and Meg, they're quiet and sneaky and I can deal with that, but mom says it wouldn't work out and Alexandar agreed.

_--End chapter—_

Another bunch of changes… again much is the same but some is very different too… let me know what you think!! Thanks…


	3. School, School, and more School

**To Find A Place**

**By:** Moonlightbear

**Summary: **It's the place where love takes over hate, where confusion becomes clear vision, where once you were lost, now you are found. This is the story of Lilias Connor, a girl who seen too much, but knows so little. Formally, It's a Hard Demigod Life…

**Disclaimer:** these books are so good I wish I could say I wrote them, but I didn't… please give it up for the brilliant Rick Rioridan!! Although all characters you know are his, but the ones who are new are mine and I'm proud of it!!

**Chapter Four: **School, School, and more School

School wasn't so bad. I cried when my mommy left. My roommate, who made a big entrance by having a yelling match with her stepdad in front of the dorm building, wasn't bad either. We got on really well. Her name is Delia Reten, and she's from Seattle, WA. Her mother died when she was four and now all she had in the world was her stepdad, who wasn't happy to be stuck with her. "I've gone to boarding school ever since I started school. School doesn't agree with me, this is the third one I've been to." She told me once. I told her about my school experiences too. For once in my life I didn't feel different anymore. She loved poetry and music; where as I enjoyed the horseback riding and language classes. Sure it was hard because of my dyslexia, but I worked past it.

The school was pretty cool. They had kids from 36 countries, all girls, and they specialized in Latin, horses and the arts. It was a really tough school, but with all the extra study hall and teacher's aids, I did pretty well. Delia and I spent a lot of time together not just in our dorm room but also in the dozens of dyslexia workshops. Fifteen percent of the student body actually had one learning disorder or another. Dyslexia, ADD, and ADHD were some of the main ones. Kids at school joked all the time that that's why their parent sent them away. On the weekends, I spent most of the time helping with the horses. Sometimes I'd talk to them and they always seem to understand, but that's just silly!

When I came home for Christmas break I was no longer sleeping in my brother's room. On the second floor of our house there once was a computer cubby. It's a tiny little room that has desks built in on both sides and just enough room for a chair in between. Well for the past few years it was filled to the hill with storage boxes that didn't fit in our cluttered shed, basement, or attic. They must have done some serious cleaning during the fall, because the computer cubby was cleaned out and inside was a barely fit twin size bed. It was ok… My home clothes were in mom's side of her her's closet. All the kids were as nuts, quiet, or smart as ever.

The winter term was just like the fall one. There were maybe five new students and after spring break we got a new science teacher. He was kinda strict and blew up the lab on the last day of school. He went totally crazy and started to scream at several of the students, me included and if I could have helped it. I didn't want to be included in that! He sorta just disappeared too. No one knew where he went.

Need less to say, the next fall, I was at another school. This school was smaller student wise, but bigger building wise. Every kid had their own room. That was nice! Until I realized it's not easy to make friends when you have classes with different people all the time and you're never around someone long enough to get to know them. It was a lonely semester; I was so glad to be home for Christmas and lied to my mom when she planned on sending me back for the winter term. I told her some wild story that I didn't even think she'd actually believe, but she did.

My third boarding school was in Oregon, farming land. I loved the settings and this one had horseback riding, which I love as you know. There was a bully problem here though. I got myself in some major issues because if the target wasn't me it was my friend, Ellie. She was a tiny little thing you could knock over with a twig. She just started boarding school and she was always home sick. If she wasn't crying in a corner, she had her nose in a book, or she was grooming the horses. We had great fun out at the stalls together. The best part of this school was just one month before we went home for the summer Ellie spoke her mind to those wretched girls who were giving us such a hard time all year. Just the looks on their faces! Oh, it was priceless!

Unfortunately, when I turned ten, my brother Eli was old enough for school and mom decided to send him away, like me. She wanted us to stay together so, lucky me! I have to change again… Ellie and Oregon, well they were a girls only school. It just wasn't fair! I liked that school, nothing freaky happened there, it wasn't boring or lonesome. I wanted to stay! But what could I do…

Eli was my brother though… I loved him, even if he drove me nuts. I swear that year I heard my name called a bazillion times through the halls, but when I needed him for something I could never find him. Oregon was cheesecake compared to this place on the bully scale. Ninth graders loved to pick on the littlest kids and Eli was the third youngest in the entire school. It took me a few months but they learned to stay far away from Eli Connors.

I didn't realize how fidgety I was until I began worrying about my brother so much. My mom told me I had to watch him. I was his protector. Ever since I started school teachers always made small comments about me possible being ADHD but at the age of ten is when I was actually diagnosed with it. They said it ran in the family, because Eli was diagnosed that year too. I guess it made sense, but they should have noticed Eli sooner because it's kind of hard to miss.

Nothing much happened at the school and I had a few good friends, but just like every other year I went to another school. We changed, mainly because of Eli's imagination, I thought. He told mom he saw big puppies in the shadows; his words, not mine. I told him he should have played with the puppy and bring it home. Mom flipped out on me and told me it wasn't funny; trust me I won't joke like that again (at least not while she's around).

Oh, and get this, we have the newest member of the family, Noah. Before him were the triplets: Addison, Arynn, and Abigail. The_ A _crew were the ones mom was pregnant when I first started boarding school. This completes my family for now. With so many people, it a running joke that chaos is our family motto at home.

That summer was my mom's Ten Year College Reunion, and we went to San Francisco for the week leading up to the party. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and rode on the cable cars everywhere. It was loads of fun. Mom said we would go to Alcatraz when everyone was older, so we didn't go there. We never made it to the reunion either. The day before the reunion we were on the beach when a loud explosion sounded. And if you looked far over to the right we could see debris in the sky from Alcatraz. My mom and stepdad were worry for our safety and we left that night.

A few days later Mount St. Helen erupted hugely, steam and lava all over the place. It was scary, I can't remember if any body was killed though. I live in Arizona, so I don't have to worry about stuff like that; I only saw it because mom was watching the NEWS a lot.

When Eli and I went to school again, we went to this place in Texas. I had my horses back and they had foil fencing too. Once during lunch, Eli found me. He was pouting. He really liked the swords, but the teacher said he was too aggressive. I tended to get the same remarks, mostly because they paired me up with the jerk who has thought he was better then me since the first day he got there. That year Eli and I bonded a lot. He helped me with the horses all the time. He'd talked to them just like I did sometimes, and we both felt like they could understand us. Eli tried to ask me what dad was like, but I couldn't give him much because I didn't know anything about him. I wasn't mean though, I didn't tell him my feelings about dad, about the way he got her pregnant and then disappeared. I didn't think our dad really cared about us, but I kept that to myself.

Just after spring break we got a new horse, but it was a mean little sucker. No one could go near it, I tried a dozen times, but no one could except for this one lady. I didn't like her, she was a teacher for one of the older grades and any time I saw her in the halls she'd always give me these dirty looks. I had to watch Eli super close because never liked it when others didn't like him, namely the horse. The school called him Daemon. I felt like that just added to his mean personality.

Over the weekend, Eli and I were practicing not being so aggressive with our foils outside. It's nearly been a full school year and we still have trouble, but it was more fun to be hard and fast, rather then controlled and slow. We use our instincts more then what we learned. We were at the edge of the woods practicing when we heard people screaming. The evil horse was galloping across the ground, chasing and biting people, and then it saw my brother and I and made a bee line towards up.

"Split up!" I yelled and Eli ran for the buildings while I dove into the forest. I ran as fast as I could, but I heard the angry snorts of a very pissed off horse. He wasn't far behind me. I was scared shitless; what was I supposed to do?! The foil sword would just bounce of the horse. I was getting tired, running wasn't my strongest suit. I saw a tree in the distance with perfect stepping spots. I climbed the tree easily, but the horse knew I stopped running and circled the tree several times, snorting and huffing. It cocked its head up and to the side and I knew it saw me. It tried jumping at me and I stuck my foil at it. I pocked one of the eyes out and it went nuts and ran off, only to come speeding back and rammed the tree. I screamed holding on for dear life. It took off and rammed the tree again and the roots were starting to come out. The tree was gonna fall over! It was too big if I didn't get out I'd be crushed, but if I did get down I'd be killed by a raging horse.

I stabbed the horse again, but it didn't do much. Its skin was tougher than my stupid foil. It rammed the tree again and the tree gave an almighty creak as it tilted and slowly fell. Thank god it fell slowly I almost got out before I got trap; unfortunately, I didn't get all the way out and was indeed trapped, it just didn't hurt as much. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but my attention was swiftly directed back at the crazy horse that was racing toward me. I grabbed the first thing my hand touched, I thought it would be my foil I had dropped, or a branch, but instead I picked up a big ass gold looking sword. I barely had time to register this before the horse ran straight into it. Well that was dumb on his part. The craziest thing wasn't me stabbing it, but rather it bursting into dust when I did. For a few minutes, I couldn't see or breathe, and I think I passed out. The next thing I new there was students and teacher pulling the branches off me. Someone said, "Where did that crazy dog come from?"

I was like, "What?! It was a horse, that mean horse."

A teacher near me told me to calm down and relax. In the end, I had no broken bones just a bunch of scratches and bruises. The school sent out a report about the rabid dog to all the parents. The parents of the kids, who were bitten, sued the school royally. My mom picked me and my brother up and asked us what really happened. Eli was on the same trip as the rest of the school, it was a rabid dog. They all came to the conclusion that it followed me into the woods and kept running after I had climbed the tree. The tree only fell because it was old and when I climbed in it I made unbalanced and it just tipped over, trapping me underneath. No one ever saw the gold looking sword either and everyone insisted it was a dog, not a horse like I saw. I thought I was going crazy, so I just kept my mouth shut and agreed with the story Eli told mom. Afterward mom said, "They're not ready to go, not yet." She'd mumble. "I'm not ready."

We finished school at a public school in Prescott, and had the whole summer to hang out. Matthew and Megan played pirates with us a lot. We'd use Star Wars light savers, long paper towel roll tubes, sticks, and styrofoam swords. It was great fun! Andrew was always reading, Dale loved his video games, the _A_ team were totally into building things with blocks, legos, pans, and dishes. They drove mom nuts. Little Noah was sick with a cold or something all summer, so he was sleeping a lot.

Mom was really weird all summer. She barely painted and watched me and Eli constantly. I swear I found her watching me sleep a few times, and that's not easy considering where my room was. I heard mom listening to our song a lot too and she'd talk to herself, like: "I promised him… but they may never come back if I let them go… 'now I understand why you pushed me away'… I've got to think of the big picture…"

Alexandar was getting upset. He wanted his wife back. He wanted her attention and they fought a few times because of this.

The last month before we'd have to go to another school, a toxic terrorist attack hit New York. I only heard about this because my mom had been addicted to the NEWS and weather channels lately. There was this big storm system that traveled all the way across the states. We had rain for days in Prescott, but it wasn't as bad as up north. It was like everything was going crazy. There were tsunamis hitting a bunch of the coasts along the borders of the Atlantic Ocean. The weirdest thing though was, well, it all stopped on August 18. The storm was over, the toxic terrorist disappeared, tsunamis stopped… Whatever was happening just ended, and everything went back to normal. New York took sometime to recover, but they were fine in the end.

_--End Chapter—_

Come on now!!! Review!! Please?!!!! Thank you!! Oh and next chapter almost brings us up to speed with the prologue! Yeah!!!


	4. A Journey's Beginning

**To Find A Place**

**By:** Moonlightbear

**Summary: **It's the place where love takes over hate, where confusion becomes clear vision, where once you were lost, now you are found. This is the story of Lilias Connor, a girl who seen too much, but knows so little. Formally, It's a Hard Demigod Life…

**Disclaimer:** these books are so good I wish I could say I wrote them, but I didn't… please give it up for the brilliant Rick Rioridan! Although all characters you know are his, but the ones who are new are mine and I'm proud of it!

**Chapter Five: **The Journey Begins

Mom couldn't get us into another co-ed school, like the two previous years, so she sent us to a brother/ sister school in Wyoming. They were two separate schools about 100 miles a part, but anytime there was a dance or sporting practices the schools got together. One was for boys, the other for girls. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I missed having Eli with me at school. It just wasn't the same.

This was an O.K. school, nothing wonderful about it. No horses, I was so bored in my free time. There were no interesting people to make friends with. The only person I talked to on a regular base was my room mate, Helen McKinnins. I could talk with her until she started to preach. She is the president of the bible youth group in school and the biggest bible thumper I've met. When she preached, I disappeared, it drove me nuts.

I really missed Eli, and I know he did too. He'd text me constantly, and I did the same. I can't tell you how many times I got my phone taken away in the middle of class. When we went home for break, mom told us off; she was notified every time they confiscated our phones.

For the winter term mom called the school and had a long talk with mine and my brother's building moderators. On Monday mornings the moderators took our phones and returned them on Friday night. Funny enough I made a friends this way. Another girl had the same problem, she used her phone so much to talk to her friends back home, and her dad found out. Every Monday morning we had to turn the phones in and all through breakfast we just complained and ranted to each other. It was great fun.

It was the first week in May, less than a month before we get to go home. I was packing my math book into my bag for my last class of the week. I opened the door to leave when the phone in my dorm room rang. I picked it up; it was usually my mom, Helen's parents, or the moderator. "Hello?"

"Oh, thank the gods, Lily! Are you ok?"

"Yeah, mom… What's going on?"

"Ok, I need you to listen to me closely, and do exactly what I say!"

Twenty minutes later I was in the front office, signing myself out. The headmistress was on the phone with my mom as I filled out the papers. I was nervous; my mom didn't tell me what exactly happened to Eli, but I knew it was bad if he was in a taxi cab. I was waiting for him now and then we we're to head to Salt Lake City, UT. It was the closest place that had a train station and mom told me to go there and open a locker. Supposedly, after that, everything would be explained, but I _had _to get there! I really hope Eli is okay; I wouldn't forgive myself if something bad happened to him.

The taxicab came squealing into the front parking lot and I saw Eli huddling inside. I threw opened the door and jumped in. "Eli!"

"Lily!" He cried and hugged me for dear life.

"Oh my god, are you ok? What happened? Mom wouldn't tell me what happened!"

"The lion! A big elephant lion chased me!" He mumbled in to my chest.

"Excuse, please close the door and where are we heading ma'am?"

"What?" I forgot there was a dude driving. I grabbed my backpack, that I dropped outside when I saw how distress my brother was, and put it between my legs and shut the door.

"It's coming back!" My brother whimpered.

"Train station, Salt Lake City and step on it!" I told the cab driver. "It's ok," I whispered to my brother to calm him down. The cab wasn't moving yet. "What's wrong? Why are we moving?"

"Money, you have some child?"

"My mom told me it's paid for. Didn't my brother give you something?"

"I gave him a big gold coin mommy hid in my backpack." Eli said taking his head away from my chest to speak clearly. "It gives us a trip to anywhere we wanna go."

"Exactly, so take us where we want to go, NOW!" The man gave us a dirty look, but did as I said. He started speeding through deserted roads. There was no one around for miles. "Should you be going this fast?" I asked. He was going at least 30 over the speed limit.

"Do you or do you not want me to step on it and get you to where you want to go fast?"

"Well, yeah, but if the police pull us—"

He cut me off. "Police won't stop us, not with your payment."

"Really."

"That's what I was told… Pretty much _all_ we were told during orientation 10yrs ago." The man said in a foul mood. He had to listen to these kids and not get paid; he hated this!

"Have you taken others with coins? Who were they? Where did you take them?" I asked. Mom was really cryptic and I wanted to know more about what was going on; if this guy had the answers, I wanted them!

"No, you're the first, _kid._ A reminder came out, where the receipts come out. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to keep my eyes on the road, concentrate, and not talk to little children crying in the back. We're stuck together for another two and a half hours, and I don't want any trouble!"

And with that he began to ignore us. He was so rude! Anyway, he told me we'd be getting to our destination an hour ahead of schedule, which was good. I turned to my brother, pulled him away and looked him in the eye. "Now, tell me everything… What happened?"

He told me he was playing soccer with some of the other kids, when panic spread throughout the campus. A rhino was loose from the local Zoo. When I asked what Zoo, Eli just shrugged. He told me it wasn't a rhino when he saw it. "People were lying, just like when they said it was a dog, at our last school!" I blew up at that. The cab swerved slightly and the driver glared at me. I yelled at Eli, against my better judgment, but he lied too. We argued, but eventually I let it go. He didn't realize those people were wrong until these people were wrong too. "I just believed the teachers and _you_ didn't say I was wrong either." At least I wasn't nuts; well, either that or we're both nuts.

My brother explained that when the rhino turned past the building, he said it was really a lion as big as a pickup truck. It was huge with orange fur. The thing saw him and raced after him. Eli did the same thing I did the year before, he ran into a set of woods. Ever notice that the borders of a boarding school are always a forest of some kind? Anyway, he ran as fast as his feet would carry him. The lion was slowed down by the trees; the trees were huge, some fell under the giant's weight while others blocked its path. Eli climbed the biggest tree in the whole forest; he told me it was called 'The Tree of Three.' It was planted a few hundred years ago when a family with three sons owned the land. One of the sons descendents opened the school in 1894, and opened the sister branch in 1918. The lion wasn't like the horse, that sensed I stopped running, the lion continued to race off into the distance. My brother didn't move for over an hour, just to be sure, but the lion didn't come back. He wondered the woods for a while before finding a small road. Eli followed it, hoping it would take him back to school, but the gas station he found was good enough. "I called mom from there and told her everything I just told you. She called the cab. She told him where to go. She told me about the coin. I was glad I picked my bag up when people started freaked out; I had it with me at the gas station. What… what did mom tell you?"

I told Eli about the locker and the train station; I told him it didn't sound like we'd be going home. The way mom talked to me I felt like it would be a long time before we'd see her again. After a while we settled into our seats and relaxed. I was listening to my MP3 player when Eli squeezed my hand. "I think it's coming back." He whimpered. He was scared.

"Shhh, it's ok." I looked around us as we sped down the roads. There was nothing there. We sped past yet another cop but they didn't bother me anymore. At first they made me nervous, but after the third one I realized they weren't going to come after us. It took me ten or so minutes to calm him down. He was really tired actually and fell asleep. About a half hour after that I heard a siren behind us. A motorcycle cop was pulling us over. "I thought you said they're not supposed to stop us…"

"They're not,"

"Then why are we stopping?"

"Because I'm not going to be chased by the police all the way to the train station!"

"But-"

"No buts kid!" And he slowed to a stop on the side of the road.

The cop stopped six feet behind us and walked up to the driver's side of the cab. He was a young guy, in his twenties. He seemed nice. "Hey you guys," He said. It was weird, like he was doing a social call rather than writing a ticket for excessive speed. "I'm Officer Daley, and well truth be told, curiosity killed the cat. I just have to know; you're going well over the speed limit, but we're not supposed to pull you over. Can you tell me why?"

"So why did you?" I mumbled in the back, before saying. "It's just the way things are."

The cab yelled, "Hey! You don't talk to adults that way!"

Did I mention I hate our cab driver? The cop and him talked for a while and I was getting annoyed. Five minutes past and I couldn't wait any longer maybe it was because of my ADHD, or maybe it was the tension I felt rising in the air. "Excuse me!" I butted in rather rudely. "I know your curios, but we don't have all the answers and my brother and I have to get some place. So if you don't mind, which you shouldn't since you were never supposed to pull us over in the first place, we need to leave."

"Young lady, you do know that talking back to a police officer is not a smart thing to do, right?"

"Yeah, and you not doing your job is just as bad…"

The cab driver turned in his seat to face me and said with a nasty sneer, "Who do you think you are? Royalty?"

I didn't get a chance to reply because the sky lit up like a Christmas tree. Moments before it was a bright sunny day, but now cloud covered the sky and a large flash of lighting flashed across the sky. The cop and cab driver started gabbing about the crazy weather, and how cool it was. I didn't think it was neat, I was stunned silent. To me, it felt like a warning. "We, um, we really need to get going, sir." I said as I finally got my voice back.

"Just wait!" The cab driver snapped at me.

Suddenly my brother, who'd been asleep, practically jumped into my lap. His eyes were wide and fearful. He looked ready to burst into tears. "Eli, what's wrong?" I barely got the words out before I heard: _thump, thump… thump, thump… thump, thump… _The cop, the cab driver, my brother, and I looked behind us slowly… We saw it galloping down the road, a huge, enormous, -

"Rhino!"

_-end chapter—_

I really hope those of you who have read my story really like it and if you do then please PLEASE REVIEW! THX


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